Open Project Management (OPM): People, Purpose, and Museum Projects

The aim and purpose of this thesis was to understand how different types of museums use project management in capital projects and whether existing project management theory and practice is fit for museums. There is an opportunity to learn and build on existing knowledge of museum, organisation, and project management theory and practice by creating a common-goal, flexible-framework approach to Open Project Management (OPM). Semi-structured interviews were carried out with thirteen senior museum staff and thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data, which were part of case studies of museum projects: Ashmolean Museum; Imperial War Museum London; Victoria & Albert Museum; Museum of Oxford; Museum of the Order of St John; and interviews with members of staff from the British Museum, Compton Verney and wider museum profession. I also applied an autoethnographic approach as I included my experiences as a museum project manager (Ashmolean 2007-2014). Several broad themes emerged from the research. First, new ways of organising – the mission of the museum was often the same as the project, which meant that the senior staff referred to the project as ‘change’ in the organisation, rather than something additional. Second, project management which included collaboration of staff inside and outside the organisation was evident, but was applied differently in each type of organisation. Finally, the importance of the external stakeholders, including funders, was important. Although there are many examples of museum capital projects across the UK, the literature and critical analysis of these projects and processes is lacking in comparison to work carried out worldwide by researchers from a range of disciplines. There is an opportunity to bridge the differences and areas between organisation theories, including leadership and motivation, and project management in order to create a more effective and broader approach to managing projects in museum organisations.